The eighth most-studied language in US schools and universities today is Arabic. That would please Edward E. Salisbury of Yale, who in 1841 became the country’s first full professor of Semitic languages—nearly 200 years after North America’s first Arabic class was offered at Harvard.

The eighth most-studied language in US schools and universities today is Arabic. That would please Edward E. Salisbury of Yale, who in 1841 became the country’s first full professor of Semitic languages—nearly 200 years after North America’s first Arabic class was offered at Harvard.

More

In Central Asia’s mountains, heritage and folklore show a centuries-old respect for the most elusive—and ecologically vulnerable—of the vast region’s wild predators: Panthera uncia, the snow leopard. In August delegates from 12 countries met at the Second International Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Forum in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, to advance increasingly successful collaborations in government, education, wildlife management and law enforcement.

In the Middle Ages, bajda olives—from the Arabic for “white”—were prized on this Mediterranean archipelago, but by the late 20th century they were nearly gone. It took a retired expert in gems and jewels to revive the olives knights once called “Maltese pearls.”

Fluid, colorful and often covering buildings, eL Seed’s public installations of “calligrafitti” have won eyes and hearts in 14 countries. Now he’s embracing sculpture and fashion, but when asked what’s the most important thing about his art, he replies, “Meeting people.”

When the Museum of Art at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, hosted “Phantom Punch,” it marked the fourth show in a multi-year, multi-city exhibition tour of the United States by an eclectic group of some two dozen artists from Saudi Arabia, where over the past decade, a once-marginal contemporary art scene has become one of the world’s fastest-growing creative movements. Thought-provoking, socially engaged and at times whimsical and even satirical, the works vary from painting and rubber stamps to sculpture, assemblage, photography, video, calligraphy, performance and installation pieces. All share what one curator calls as “an honest need for explanation, an exploration of the world we live in and a desire to understand.”

In a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, 15 families with origins across the world gather in the author’s backyard for iftar, the evening meal breaking the day-long fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. It’s an American-style potluck, and each family brings not only food from homelands and traditions, but also stories and recipes. “Iftars are to me very much a party,” says Francesca Pagan, who has prepared an Italian stew of escarole and beans. “Food is one of those things that you do without during the day so you can get spiritually closer to God, but the reward of enjoying it after the sunset takes it to a whole new level.”

Screened before red-carpet audiences in Hollywood, the premieres of seven short films by seven young directors from Saudi Arabia proved an international debut for some of film’s newest and most promising talent.